John Napier

Childhood of John Napier Went to College at the age of 13 at St. Salvador’s Grew up in a protestant home Never finished graduating Was basically a genius when he was younger, nerd Known as Mechanical Merchiston

Napier’s Love Life Married his first wife Elizabeth Stirling in 1571, died within 1 year of marriage, had 1 son Married his Second Wife Agnes Chisholm and had 5 sons 5 daughters Period when most involved with religious matters Wrote A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of Saint John

Nerd or not a Nerd? Home Schooled At age 13 sent to University of St. Andrews Left without a degree Then went to Cambridge University

Nap’s Inventions Logarithms “Napier’s Bones” Decimal Point Slide Rules “Napier’s analogies”

Invention of Logarithm’s Love for astronomy led him to find this out. Required him to do many tedious trig calculations. Developed Logarithmic methods to calculate them. Remained in Common use until calculators and computers. All put at Base 10

Napier’s Bones Made for simplifying calculations Made out of bone or ivory. Made multiplication a lot easier. Also for square roots and cube roots

Born into…. Struggle between religions between Roman Catholics and Protestant. 10 years of peace, but then civil war broke out. Protestants won, and he found a burning passion to Overthrow the Papacy

Napier’s Religion A Pro-Protestant Joined raids against the Roman-Catholic Church His Book condemned the Catholic church. Math was surrounded by Protestant religion, hoped to create defense through math.